Cheap DSLR

[boyse7en]

What's a decent DSLR to buy secondhand for my daughter to try out/fiddle with/experiment?

Looking on eBay old cameras like Canon 40D, Sony A300, Nikon D70 etc are available for about £100 depending on what comes with them lens-wise.

I'm guessing any Canon or Nikon will be decent, but are other brands worth looking at?

[andye30m3]

I've always had cannon DSLR's gone from a 10D to 20D and now a 40D, I've tended to buy mine at the point where they're a good few years old as I can't justify spending loads on one when I already have too many expensive hobbies

Whilst obviously theres newer / more advanced DSLR's they're ideal for me to have a play with.

The cannons I've had have always been reliable and easy to sell on when the next one comes along.

Not sure how they compare to other brands but more than happy with them.

[Mutley]

If you want cheap, look at a Nikon D100, solid but a small sensor. But, once you start buying lenses, it could be expensive if you decide to change.

[R E S T E C P]

I had a Sony A350 (pretty much same as A300) when they first came out.

That was the camera I started out with for experimentation, etc. before getting more serious.

I would 100% recommend a Sony for someone who wants to get into photography. The A350 was a joy to use, and the image stabilisation built into the body is great - you can get adapters for old manual lenses (cheap-ish on eBay, look for M42 mount) that keep the stabilisation working. There's no better way to learn about all of the factors that go into focus, exposure, etc than to use a lens which does absolutely nothing for you! Some of those older lenses have spectacular image quality for a tiny fraction of the price of a new automatic lens.

Using those manual lenses you can do things like mount it back-to-front for cheap (but still great quality) macro shots.
Of course you can get manual lens adapters for Canon/Nikon as well, but no image stabilisation (which does help a lot with some older lenses).

But if your daughter decides she's enjoying it and wants to start investing in better equipment... Ditch the Sony before spending any more money and move to Canon/Nikon. Both are good. At the time when I was choosing (a few years ago), I felt that entry-level Canon models were superior to entry-level Nikon, but this may not be the case any more. Both are decent and both have good lens/accessory availability.

Edited by R E S T E C P on Thursday 8th September 13:38

[pidsy]

have a look at MPB - they have early model Canon's for £30 upwards. a kit lens can be had off there for a few quid too.

[Fastchas]

Really happy with my Canon 20D. Bought a 60D recently but it's not that much better than a decent lens on the 20D. May sell the 60D and go back to just using the old boy for what I use it for...
Nikon D300/3100 are cheap and plentiful and give good results I hear.

[danllama]

+1 on a 20d. Love mine even though I use a 6D as my main body. If you can't get over the small screen a 60d is also excellent.

[K12beano]

Mutley said:

If you want cheap, look at a Nikon D100, solid but a small sensor. But, once you start buying lenses, it could be expensive if you decide to change.

Or a D200.

Buying secondhand lenses needn't be a huge cost in the long term as you can just pop them back on Fleabay or whatever and the market will still likely be there.

[ukaskew]

Worth considering 'older' mirrorless tech too. Dirt cheap but capable of results on a par with any of the DSLRs mentioned quite comfortably, more importantly you might find something that is better suited in terms of size, and is less likely to be terminal if dropped (no mirror).

MPB have a number of Olympus bodies around £50 and the kit lenses can be found very cheap too.

[RobDickinson]

IMo the older canons are better than the older nikons, the sensors are superior in general esp at higher iso.

A 40D would be ideal, decent controls, LCD, live view and af/fps.

Anything older ( 30d, 20d, 400d,350d etc) will be more compromised in terms of ability for the fractional savings.

If you get a kit lens one (18-55) try make sure its the IS model not the non IS older one which is crap

[andy-xr]

I bought my wife a Nikon D3300 for her baby shower, to replace my old D40 she'd been using. Mostly she used it on Auto No Flash and Aperture Priority.

The D40 was OK, 3 focus points, max ISO 1600, she used it with a 35mm 1.8 lens and was hapy enough with it. The focus points started to become a problem in how she was composing photos and led to a few days of coming back, loading the photos up to her laptop and being a bit disappointed she was getting out of focus on a few areas.

The D3300 has 11 focus points, 4x the resolution, HD video and a kit 18-55 lens that means she can wander around taking photos of her upcycling stuff, probably the baby when she arrives and general 'stuff' that she doesnt really need to worry about focus/compose anymore. It was £279 from Argos, which seemingly is cheaper than the D3200 second hand. Knocks the arse out of the D40 and she's really happy with it. Sticks it on 'Effects' mode or Aperture Priority, fine jpeg, clicks away, loads them up to er laptop and generally happy.